Defense Bill Is Full Of Pork

July 23, 2000

Congress is throwing money around again. Your money.

This time it's a whopping $290 billion defense bill. The legislation, passed by the House on Wednesday and expected to quickly pass the Senate and be signed into law by President Clinton, would increase spending by $21 billion, about $5 billion more than Clinton and the Pentagon requested. The increase alone would be larger than the entire foreign aid budget.

Is it needed? Yes, partly. It would provide the military with a pay increase, better health care and enhancements in readiness. But over and above that $15.9 billion, Congress tacked on $5.1 billion, mainly for research contracts in dozens of congressional districts, along with extra missiles, ships and planes, and even a million bucks so the Army can study socks.

Talk about socking it to the taxpayer. But it's all for a good cause: pork.

"This . . . bill provides the funding for the security and defense of the United States and assures that our military strength remains second to none," said Rep. Martin Frost, D-Texas.

Well, who can argue with that? And don't worry. The United States already spends more on defense than Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and Libya combined. We probably could hold the line on defense spending for a decade and still be "second to none."

Doesn't Congress think the Pentagon knows what it needs? If it's really about military strength, why not stop at the $16 billion increase requested by the administration? That would put more money where it needs to be: in the hands of military personnel. The rest is meant to keep the bloated defense industry thriving, grease the palms of defense contractors and bring the pork home to congressional districts around the country.

There's $400 million to build five more F-15s in Missouri, House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt's home state -- despite the Pentagon's desire to phase them out. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott is getting $460 million more than the Navy wanted to build LHD assault ships in his home state of Mississippi. The largesse goes on and on.

In a perfect world with plenty of money for everything, no one would object to such expenditures. But the defense bill's easy passage is in stark contrast to the struggles of legislation that would fund school construction, housing, legal services for the poor and prescription drug coverage under Medicare. Those bills would help a lot of people, too, but apparently not the people this Congress cares about.

Without question, military personnel need and deserve the 3.7 percent pay raise and the 9 percent increase for health care, especially those with families and mid-career personnel who are considering abandoning the military because of low pay. In a time of great national prosperity, there's no excuse for weakening the military by siphoning off its best people and channeling them into the higher-paying civilian sector.

Too bad Clinton can't keep the good parts and veto the bad parts. But the Supreme Court, calling it unconstitutional, took that power away from the president two years after Congress granted it in 1996. It may be time to find another way to permit closer scrutiny, and possible veto, of individual legislative provisions. One might be to pass smaller bills dealing with only one or two items each. In this case, the pay raise and health care increases might be contained in a separate bill from the more questionable items.

But is Congress likely to put itself out of the pork business? Uh, better get out your checkbook.